August 1988, Page 31

Issues on the Record

US Sympathy for Israel Drops: Results of a Roper poll commissioned by the American Jewish Committee and announced July 8 showed a drop in the percentage of Americans who expressed sympathy for Israel from 48 percent in February to 37 percent in April 1988. Those who said they sympathized with Arab regimes rose from 8 to 11 percent. In another April poll announced by the American Jewish Congress, 61 percent of registered voters reportedly supported Israel and 13 percent supported the Arabs. In a January poll done for the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League, which also gave respondents the options of saying their sympathies were with "neither" or "both," 47 percent said their sympathies were more with Israel and 15 percent chose the Arabs. The Anti-Defamation league said that when it repeated its poll in April, the January figures were unchanged.

Israel's Post-Intifadah Tourism Crash: New York-born Israeli entertainer Mike Burstyn, who exhorts Americans to "See Israel—See for Yourself" in an Israeli government television campaign launched by Grey Advertising, complained in an interview with the Jewish Week, Inc. of New York: "It's ironic that German tourists have been coming to Israel. They stick with us through thick and thin. It's the American Jewish tourists who are afraid to go. American Jews have stopped coming. This is the time to support Israel—not abandon her."

Pope Criticized: Abraham Foxman, national director of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League, says he was "saddened and disappointed" by Pope John Paul II's remarks during a June visit to Austria. When Austrian Jewish leaders requested that the Vatican recognize Israel, the pope replied: "The Jewish people have the right to a homeland, as any other nation according to international law, but the same goes for the Palestinian people, many of whom have become homeless refugees." Foxman grumbled that the pope "coupled two issues which have nothing to do with each other: condemnation of anti-Semitism and calling for a Palestinian state."

A Friend in Need: Defrocked Jimmy Swaggart has announced he will soon visit the Holy Land. Commented the Jewish Week, Inc.: "Reflecting the views of the evangelical right wing, Swaggart will no doubt express his support for Israel, but the Foreign Ministry would prefer that he do it from the comfort of his home."

End of Soviet Jewish Emigration? The Israeli government's decision to issue Israeli visas only to Jews committed to immigrating into Israel may end the Soviet Jewish emigration movement, Robert J. Brym of the University of Toronto, writes in Washington Jewish Week. "In 1971, the first year of the emigration movement, less than half of 1 percent of emigrating Soviet Jews came to North America," Brym writes. "So far in 1988, the figure stands at 90 percent ... The big losers in this drama are the Soviet Jews, whose freedom of choice will be restricted. The big winner is the Soviet government ... Now, every time an Israeli leader complains about violations of Jews' human rights in the USSR, Soviet leaders can point out that Israel is violating these same Jews' human rights by denying them the right to live in the country of their choice."

Israeli Official Charges Abu Sharif Article Seeks US Concessions to PLO: Director General Avraharn Tamir of the Israeli Foreign Ministry does not agree with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that there is "nothing new" in an article by PLO spokesman Bassam Abu Sharif calling for a two-state solution based upon the land-for-peace formula of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. "Yasser Arafat is not willing to split the PLO because of resolution 242," Tamir says. "Therefore he wants to persuade the United States to talk to him by other means." If Arafat succeeds in extracting concessions from the US, the Soviet Union, and the moderate Arab states in return for joining the diplomatic bandwagon, the Israeli diplomat adds, "we will all be caught with our pants down."

Eban Sees Occupation of Territories as Principal Threat to Israel: Former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, denied a place on the Labor Party election ticket in November, told the Washington Jewish Week that Israeli security would be better served by advanced technology and early warning airborne systems such as the AWACS than by holding the occupied territories. "I think the problem now is whether we can maintain our security with them," he said. Had Israel claimed 100 percent of Palestine in 1947, the world would have opposed Israel's creation, Eban noted. "Therefore the present condition in which we are ruling 100 percent of the territory and holding 100 percent of the sovereignty is...a deviation from the basic principle of our birth."

Israeli Public Willing to Talk with PLO: Two-thirds of 1,180 Israelis polled last December and January favored an international conference to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and expressed willingness to talk to the PLO. Half of those (one-third of the total respondents) were willing to talk with no preconditions.

Reform Jews Support Shultz Peace Initiative: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, central body of Reform Judaism, announced support for the Middle East peace initiative of Secretary of State George Shultz, and urged Israel to express willingness to withdraw from some of the occupied territories to "stimulate the peace process." The organization also commended 30 US senators who endorsed the Shultz initiative.

Conditions Set for Restoration of USSR-Israeli Ties: Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said after a 90-minute meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir at the United Nations in June that restoration of Israeli-Soviet diplomatic relations, broken in 1967, depends upon Israeli agreement to an international Mideast peace conference. "The conflict must be resolved," Shevardnadze said.

Israel Reduces Terrorist Sentences: Israeli President Chaim Herzog has reduced to 15 years imprisonment the sentences of three Jewish Israelis convicted of using automatic weapons to cut down at random students at the Hebron Islamic University in 1984, killing four Palestinian students and wounding 30 others. The three belong to the same Jewish underground organization involved in maiming two Palestinian mayors with car bombs in 1980, planting explosives in 16 Arab buses, and trying to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1984.

Israel Records 1987 Net Immigration Increase: Some 14,000 immigrants entered and 9,000 Israeli citizens left the country in 1987, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. The figure marked the first net gain in recent years. In 1986, 10,142 immigrants entered Israel and 13,900 departed. In 1985 12,298 entered and 15,300 departed.

Israeli Police and Soldiers Beat Journalists: Israeli Foreign Press Association Chairman Bob Slater of Time magazine reported between 100 and 150 physical attacks on foreign journalists between December, when the Palestinian uprising began, and early April. Agence France Presse photographer Sven Hackstrand reported he was knocked to the ground, beaten with clubs, and then taken to a police van where the beating was resumed. Time magazine photographer David Rubinger said an atmosphere of Israeli hostility toward the news media contributed to the attacks. "it is rather a disease which is spreading like rot at the lower levels of the police force ... and the army," Rubinger said. The foreign journalists also protested restricted access to the occupied territories and confiscation of materials from journalists entering or leaving Ben Gurion Airport.